The Life of the Butterfly
★ 6.4 · 1911 · 9m · Documentary
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Nanook of the North
1922 · ★ 7.1
This pioneering documentary film depicts the lives of the indigenous Inuit people of Canada's northern Quebec region. Although the production contains some fictional elements, it vividly shows how its resourceful subjects survive in such a harsh climate, revealing how they construct their igloo homes and find food by hunting and fishing. The film also captures the beautiful, if unforgiving, frozen landscape of the Great White North, far removed from conventional civilization.
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Finlandia
1922 · ★ 4.3
A documentary from Erkki Karu, one of the earliest pioneers of Finnish cinema: This government-produced propaganda film introduces the nature, sports, military, agriculture and capital of Finland.
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2011 · ★ 5
A medium-length film that takes the central place in the video installation "The Lady of Corinth". In both the medium-length film and the installation, Guerin delves into the relationship between cinema and painting based on Pliny the Elder's account of the invention of painting.
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New York Portrait, Chapter III
1990 · ★ 8.3
"[Hutton’s] latest urban film, New York Portrait, Chapter III, takes on a unique tone in relation to Hutton’s ongoing exploration of rural landscape. The very fact that Hutton is dealing with older footage, with archives of memory more than immediacy, gives it a different texture than his earlier New York films. Hutton always found the presence of nature in the city, not only in his many shots of sky and vegetation, but also in the geometry and texture of the city itself, which seemed to project an independence from the human." (Tom Gunning)
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2007 · ★ 7
Film historians, and survivors from the nearly 30-year struggle to bring sound to motion pictures take the audience from the early failed attempts by scientists and inventors, to the triumph of the talkies.
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Watch the Tempo
2018
On 18th of December 2017, the Filarmonica Teatro Regio Torino, directed by Timothy Brock, presented "The Gold Rush" by Charles Chaplin, with live performance of the soundtrack. But let's go back a few days: this short film takes us in the backstage of the concert!
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Sheep Coming Through Chute, Humuula Ranch, Hawaii
1906
Sheep bound through a narrow opening, followed by a panoramic vista of the flock running through a meadow.
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Railway Station
1980 · ★ 4.7
Warsaw's Central Railway Station. 'Someone has fallen asleep, someone's waiting for somebody else. Maybe they'll come, maybe they won't. The film is about people looking for something.
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Berlin: Symphony of a Great City
1927 · ★ 7.5
A day in the city of Berlin, which experienced an industrial boom in the 1920s, and still provides an insight into the living and working conditions at that time. Germany had just recovered a little from the worst consequences of the First World War, the great economic crisis was still a few years away and Hitler was not yet an issue at the time.
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The Gulls
1944 · ★ 7.5
Arne Sucksdorff’s short documentary observes gulls raiding nests and stealing eggs with ruthless persistence. Though presented as pure nature study, the film was widely read as an allegory of Nazism—a symbolic parable of predation and violence during wartime. Sucksdorff himself denied such intent, but remarked that “a film that is not open to interpretation is a dead film.”
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Buffalo Bill
1894 · ★ 3.7
The famous army scout in an exhibition of rifle shooting. A fine picture of the principal, and beautiful smoke effects.
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Man with a Movie Camera
1929 · ★ 7.8
A cameraman wanders around with a camera slung over his shoulder, documenting urban life with dazzling inventiveness.
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